Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and Wound Healing Capacities of Merremia Borneensis Leaves from Brunei Darussalam
Abstract
Merremia borneensis has important applications in traditional folk medicine. However, the ethnomedicinal value of the plant has yet to receive scientific validation. Bioactivities of M. borneensis leaves from Brunei Darussalam were evaluated by analysing the antioxidant, wound healing, and antibacterial activities of the methanol extract and its chloroform, ethyl acetate, and hexane partitioned extracts. The DPPH radical scavenging assay was used to assess the antioxidant capacities of the extracts. The disc diffusion assay was adopted to investigate the antimicrobial activities of the extracts against Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus. The wound healing activities of the methanol extract were analysed using in vivo analysis on male Wistar rats. The ethyl acetate and methanol extracts demonstrated high radical scavenging activities of over 90 %. Antibacterial activities of both methanol and ethyl acetate extracts were evident against all four bacterial strains, whereas the chloroform extract only showed activity against E. coli. The hexane extract showed weak antioxidant activity and no detectable antibacterial activity. In the wound healing study, topical treatment with 50 % w w-1 of the methanol extract in pure petroleum jelly base yielded complete wound closure at post-wounding day 15. Both 10 % and 50 % w w-1 dosages accelerated wound contraction and showed augmented formation of collagen structures. Overall, the Bruneian M. borneensis leaf extracts showed substantial antioxidant and antibacterial activities, while topical treatment with M. borneensis showed improved wound healing progress in the treated animals.
References
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